Day 4 – August 13, 2018 (Mon) – Georgetown, Grand Cayman

After a very relaxing breakfast at the buffet, we heard the announcement at 10:30 am that tender tickets were no longer required to go ashore. We then went to Deck 4 midship to use the gangway off the ship. The tender line was very short with only 10 people in front of us, but the 8:30 am excursion passengers were returning so we had to wait for at least 5 more minutes for them to go through security before we could board the tender as we used the same gangway. That was definitely not a good system but I guess there is nothing we can change due to the very limited space in the boarding area.

Most people just sat on the top deck of the big tender.

It took about 5 minutes to go to the shore, then we reached Royal Watler Terminal. There was practically no one there at 11 am.

As we’ve been to Grand Cayman many times, we already did the stingrays & various underwater activities. So this time we intended to take a public bus to go to the Cayman Turtle Centre. At the pier, a taxi driver approached us and offered a discounted rate of US$8 one way or $12 return per person to the farm. We happily accepted the offer & rode the taxi there. The journey took 20 minutes. The taxi driver, Daniel Lowe, was so good that he even took us inside the farm & showed us around like a guide.

When we paid for admission, they asked how we came & we told them by taxi, so they only charged us US$11 per person instead of the regular US$18. Let’s do some math here:

By taxi: $12 x 2 people + $11 x 2 admission = US$46

By bus: $4 x 2 people + $18 x 2 admission = US$44

With only 2 dollars difference, I would definitely take a taxi to save time, though we gave the driver $6 tip. The comfort level with lovely air conditioning was totally worth the extra bucks.

The green sea turtles were huge. They’re 3-4 feet long & weigh 240-420 lbs. Look at how one would span a few steps.

We also saw an iguana & a crocodile.

We passed through a baby turtle pool & there were kids in the water holding the baby turtles.

Next we went to an air-conditioned display centre to learn about the breeding of the turtles.

The turtle would lay about 1,000 eggs in 10 days.

When the eggs hatched, the little turtles would climb up & instinctively look for water to swim.

We spent about 30 minutes there then we moved to a nearby Tortuga rum shop to try their rum cake & flavoured rum. We bought a 200ml bottle with Banana flavour for US$10. There was no problem bringing this on board the ship when we returned.

The view behind the rum store was beautiful, with a restaurant there.

On the way back, there was a bit of traffic jam & it took 25 minutes to get to the National Museum opposite the pier.

We paid US$8 each to spend about 30 minutes in the air-conditioned building with very good displays & an informative film.

Then I went to Del Sol next door to buy a pair of life-guaranteed sunglasses, on sale for $50 before getting back to the pier. The walk only took 5 minutes.

This time the line-up was long & the tender was packed. We had to sit in the lower deck. It took us 20 minutes to get back to the ship.

We went to the Coral dining room on Deck 6 to have our afternoon tea. Then we went to the Wheelhouse Bar for a drink before dinner. Today the elite lounge at Skywalkers was closed due to the Captain’s party later. I like the Key West Cooler a lot.

The bar was really empty with only 5 people there.

Originally we made a reservation at Steamers. Once we knew they had Surf & Turf, we changed our mind to eat in the dining room instead. However, my filet mignon was too well done instead of medium rare, so I had to switch it. The head waiter Filippo brought another one to me which was like a medium.

The dessert creme brûlée was okay.

After dinner, we went to the Captain’s cocktail for platinum & elite guests at club Fusion. Some people started lining up half an hour before the 7:30 pm start time. It was a fun time to know about the different guest types:

◦ Gold – 476

◦ Ruby – 228

◦ Platinum – 406

◦ Elite – 257

◦ Blue – 1971

It was interesting to know that over 50% of the guests sailed 1st time with Princess.

We went to the show with the Comedian which was quite good before going to bed.